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ILLUSTRATED BY TWELVE LANTERN 


SLIDES 



WILLIAM H. RAU 
PHILADELPHIA 
1890 






























































































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GERMANY. 


1. Panorama of Berlin. —Our trip in the “Father- 
land,” as the Germans call their beloved country, can 
not begin at a better place than the capital city of 
Prussia, which we now see before us on the screen. 

Berlin is quite modern in its aspect, and is certainly 
one of the pleasantest and best kept of northern 
European capitals. The streets are mostly straight 
and wide; not inconveniently narrow, as they are in 
many other cities which outrank Berlin in picturesque¬ 
ness. The famous street called “Unter den Linden,” 
or “ Under the Lindens,” to put it in English, is quite 
as interesting in its way as the celebrated boulevards 
of Paris. Upon it are the principal stores. It is laid 
out with two double rows of the beautiful linden trees, 
from which it takes its name, and has separate ways 
reserved for carriages and for foot passengers. It 
runs in a westerly direction from the Royal Palace, 
and can be dimly seen in our view near the centre, in 
the background. 

The Royal Palace, or Schloss, the large building 
with the cupola seen at the left of the view, now com¬ 
paratively modern in appearance, is really of consid¬ 
erable antiquity, having been founded early in the 
fifteenth century by the Elector Friedrich II. It is a 
very large building, and contains six hundred rooms; 
chiefly to be remarked among these are the Throne 
Room, Picture Gallery, White Hall, New Chapel 
under the cupola, etc. 

'623) 



624 


GERMANY. 


Our view overlooks the most interesting portion of 
the city. Close in the foreground to the left we 
remark one of the older-fashioned houses, with the 
steep pitched roof and long, narrow windows so com¬ 
mon in the older German cities like Nuremberg. The 
Arsenal, Guard House, Opera, and other public 
edifices lie further off, and are partly concealed by the 
haze. 

2. Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.— Descending now 
into the city, we follow the noble avenue called 
“Unter den Linden ” (at which we shall get a closer 
look in a few moments), until we arrive at its end; 
when, on crossing the prettily laid-out Pariser Platz, 
we stand before the Brandenburg Gate, which forms 
the western entrance to the city from the Thiergarten 
or Park. 

As the photograph shows, it is of noble proportions 
and very chaste design. A better idea of its size, 
than any figures we can give, will be obtained by com¬ 
paring the height of the two men standing in the 
shadow of the central passage-way under the bronze 
horses above. The style of the structure is Grecian, 
and it was modeled in sandstone from portions of one 
of the Doric temples by C. G. Langhaus in 1789. 

The bronze chariot with the figure driving four 
colossal horses and holding a staff surmounted by an 
eagle in its hand, is more than eighteen feet in height, 
and is the work of the eminent Schadow. 

3. Imperial Palace, Berlin. —Having walked down 
the noble street called “Unter den Linden,” of which 
we spoke a moment ago, we arrive at its eastern end. 


GERMANY. 


625 

where the Opera House Platz, or Place, as we should 
say in English, forms its continuation. 

The plain but substantial structure shown in the 
view now on the screen before us, is the Imperial 
Palace, the residence of the late Emperor William, 
and as we halt in our walk to look around us, we can 
not but compare the quiet, common-sense like aspect 
of things here, with the pompous and showy sur¬ 
roundings of many other royal residences. The depth 
of the building, back in the direction of the Behren 
Strasse, is considerable. The Opera House stands 
next the Palace on the left. The late Emperor lived 
in the corner room on this side, and was frequently 
to be seen at the window by those passing by. A 
purple flag was raised over the palace when he was 
present there. The University and the Academy are 
directly opposite, or behind us as we look at the 
picture. 

4. Unter den Linden, Berlin. — Let us now 

slightly alter our position, walking a few steps to the 
right of where we were in the preceding picture. 
Our new standpoint gives us an extended view down 
the Opera House Platz, with the house itself just to 
the right of the great statue. We also obtain abetter 
idea of the beautiful avenue in which we are standing, 
so aptly called “ under the lindens.” 

The magnificent equestrian statue in the centre, is 
the celebrated one in memory of Frederick the Great. 
It is the chief ornament of this portion of the city. 
As there is no human figure near it in the picture by 
which a relative idea of its size can be conveyed, we 
may say that its height is fully forty feet. It was 


6z6 


GERMANY. 


designed by Rauch, and unveiled in 1851. The distance 
from this point to the Brandenburg Gate is five-eighths 
of a mile to our rear, along the same beautiful avenue 
of “Unter den Linden,” where we see the life of the 
great city of Berlin brought to a focus, as it were, 
both in the business and the society senses. 

As we are rather too distant from the statue to 
obtain a good idea of the rich reliefs on the pedestal, 
we will bid farewell to the Prussian Capital, and hurry 
on to the south, to take a look at a city of a very 
different character. 

5. Marien Platz, Munich. —Munich, the capital 
city of Bavaria, is a place of great importance com¬ 
mercially, as well as a famous centre of art. 

The view of the Marien Platz which we here give, 
puts us in the centre of the older portion of the city. 
We see the modern life of the town minglingwith the 
ancient or departed, in the way that only the art of 
photography renders possible; provision-dealers’ 
wagons, nurses with children in their arms, etc., 
occupying the foreground of a view in which the 
buildings and ornamental statues date back far into 
the past. The Column of St. Mary on the left, has a 
fine figure of the Virgin on its top ; it can be seen 
projecting above the roof of the high house beyond. 

The buildings in this part of the city are all more 
or less picturesque., and form a decided contrast to 
those we have just seen in Berlin. Those on the left, 
near the column, remind us of Strassburg (as we 
shall soon see), while those on the right, rather 
castellated in style, are reproductions from older 
models. The sharp pinnacles and square tower in the 


GERMANY. 


627 


background belong to the venerable church of St. 
Peter, built in the year 1170. The gallery commands 
a fine view of the city, and of the beautiful country to 
its south in the direction of the Alps. 

6. Hotel Raiser worth, G-oslar. —Alter visting the 
great capitals, Munich and Berlin, a glance at one of 
the quieter and older towns of Germany will not 
prove uninteresting. The place is indeed sleepy and 
humdrum, but is rich in historic associations, and 
in buildings of a bye-gone time. These old guild- 
houses, of which we have an excellent example in the 
view before us, are not only quaint and curious, but 
very picturesque. In fact it is in just such places as 
these that many of our modern architects hunt for 
and find the pretty bits which they afterwards intro¬ 
duce into the pretentious houses of our wealthy citi¬ 
zens. 

The hotel accommodation furnished by this very 
un-hotel-like mansion is plain and homely, but 
thoroughly good. The building was, long ago, used 
as a meeting-place for the town guilds or associations 
of workmen. After lying idle for a number of years, 
it was turned into an hotel, though but little modern¬ 
ized. A few moments work with the hatchet and saw 
would remove the partitions between the guest- 
chambers, and restore the fine old halls and apart¬ 
ments to their original appearance and size. The 
high and steep-pitched roof is peculiar to the build¬ 
ings in this part of Germany, though comparatively 
few have the pretty dormer windows with which this 
one is ornamented, nor statues of the.ancient Em¬ 
perors near the windows in the second story. 


628 


GERMANY. 


7. Old Houses, Hildeslieim.— The old city of 
Hildesheim in North Germany, a few hours by rail, 
only, from Goslar, is remarkable for the quantity of 
mediaeval art-relics and curious buildings still in 
existence there. One-sixth of all the houses in the 
town date from the 16th or 17th century. We have 
a group of these in the picture now on the screen, 
and observe the very quaint manner in which a large 
portion of the house is built over the street or road¬ 
way. A farmer’s wagon can be seen in front of the 
door, to the left of the stone pillar which supports the 
joists of the second story. , 

Our view is made in one of the churchyards of the 
strange old town, and is characteristic of the middle- 
age appearance of the place. It is but seldom that 
such a fine group of wooden houses as this can be 
found. But an attentive look at them will show that 
they are the prototypes of numerous modern struc¬ 
tures in the same style that are now so common in 
and around our large and wealthy cities. Persons 
with a fancy for picturesque and ornamental domestic 
architecture will find it gratified in a town like Hilde¬ 
sheim or Goslar. 

There are a number of very curious churches also 
to be seen here, and not far from the town walls a 
most valuable discovery of Roman gold and silver 
plate was made in the year 1868. 

8. Street in Strasshurg. Cathedral. — We here 
have a view possessing the double interest of showing 
us the streets of the Capital of Alsace-Lorraine, and 
the upper part of the famous Cathedral of Strassburg, 
which rises grandly in the centre of the town. 


GERMANY. 


Strassburg dates back to Roman times, and has 
always been an important military post. Compared 
with many others of the “Cathedral towns” of Europe, 
Strassburg is decidedly commonplace in itself, but 
the magnificent Cathedral renders it a worthy place 
of pilgrimage to all lovers of architecture. As is sa 
frequently the case in these old fashioned towns, the 
great buildings are better seen from a distance than 
when near at hand ; the streets being narrow, and the 
houses greatly crowded together. It is only from 
such a point as that where our view has been made, 
that we can adequately admire the elegant spire, 
which rises to the dizzy height of 465 feet. The 
large cross on the top was injured by a cannon-shot 
during the war of 1870, but has been restored. It is 
a matter for great congratulation that the noble pile 
escaped with but trifling injuries. 

The world-renowned astronomical clock is in the 
south transept of the Cathedral. It stands in the 
place of a still older one made in 1571 by Dasipodius, 
and concerning which latter many curious legends 
are still extant. As our picture shows, there is noth¬ 
ing distinctively French or German in the streets of 
Strassburg, although both languages are spoken by 
the people. 

Let us now look at another of these great eccle¬ 
siastical edifices— 

9. Limburg Cathedral.— The situation of the 
Cathedral of the venerable See of Limburg on the 
Lahn, is as different from the preceding one as is possi¬ 
ble to imagine. Our photograph shows the surround¬ 
ings of the great church, which are wonderfully 


630 


GERMANY. 


picturesque and striking. Instead of being in the centre 
of a closely-built town like the one we have just seen 
in Strassburg, the Cathedral of Limburg is perched 
on the top of a rocky bluff descending precipitously 
to the river Lahn. When standing on a level with the 
building at its western end we also see that it is not 
crowded by other buildings, so that it has a fine ap¬ 
proach to the western facade, as well as the pictur¬ 
esque view of its fine eastern end which we here have 
before us. 

The town of Limburg, though very old, is now a 
place of small importance. It has a lengthy ecclesias¬ 
tical history, however, and an inscription over the west 
doorway of the Cathedral informs us that the latter 
was erected to the memory of the martyr Saint George, 
in the year 909. This refers to the earlier building 
that occupied the present site; the one here represent¬ 
ed dates from the year 1235, and is in fine condition 
both on its exterior and interior. 

The beautiful and commanding site of Limburg 
Cathedral makes us think rather of a castle or fortress 
than of a religious edifice. It is quite certain that a 
position of this kind must have been well-nigh im¬ 
pregnable during the secular and religious wars with 
which Europe was scourged in earlier times, and that 
the locality could be relied upon as a safe refuge for 
persecuted churchmen. The houses on the rock to 
the left were probably used for parochial purposes in 
former times. They are now in a ruinous condition. 

Continuing on our way south, we next visit 

10. Albert Durer’s House, Nuremberg. —The 

quaint old city of Nuremberg presents a marked 


GERMANY. 


63 I 


contrast to the busy centres of modern German life, 
which are generally visited by the traveling public. It 
is perhaps the best preserved specimen of a city of the 
Middle Age period to be found in central Europe. 
Its ancient walls are still in good preservation, and 
the moat below them now serves the useful purpose 
of a vegetable garden. The top of one of the highly 
picturesque towers with which the walls are fortified, 
can be seen just beyond the distant houses at the end 
of the street in the picture. 

The residence of Albert Durer the famous painter, 
who flourished about the year 1500 and did so much 
to advance the cause of pictorial art in Germany, * is 
the subject of our picture. Awkward and queer as 
the house may appear to our modern eyes, it is never¬ 
theless by no means uncomfortable in the interior. 
It is exceedingly roomy, with wide walls; stair-cases 
easy of ascent, and apartments of generous size. The 
mansion belongs to a company of enthusiastic admir¬ 
ers of the artist, who take the best of care of it as well 
as of the valuable collection of his original sketches 
and etchings with which most of the rooms are quite 
filled. The position of the house is well chosen ; it is 
close by one of the gates of exit from the city, and 
just a short distance from the rock on which the 
famous Castle of Nuremberg stands. Both of these 
are behind us as we look at the picture. 

Making our way north into Saxony, we arrive at* 
the Capital and stop to see the 

11. Russian Cliapel, Dresden. —Our photograph 
gives us a view of the beautiful chapel of the Greek 
faith lately erected on the outskirts of the city of 


632 


GERMANY. 


Dresden, a part of which is seen in the background 
of the view. 

As we cannot here give a description of the city it¬ 
self, we must content ourselves with calling to mind 
that it is famous for its “ Green Vault,” containing 
works of art in the precious metals; for its numerous 
buildings and ornaments in the so-called “Rococo” 
style of art; and for its great picture gallery which 
contains Raphael’s Listine Madonna and other price¬ 
less masterpieces of painting. 

Dresden, except in a few places, is very modern in 
appearance, though mentioned in history as early as 
the year 1206. Being one of those cities situated in 
the eastern portion of Germany, it contains a large 
Russian population who adhere with tenacity to their 
religious faith. For their convenience, the beautiful 
structure before us has been erected. Wiesbaden also 
contains one of these Greek chapels, smaller, however 
than this one, which it will be observed has six turrets. 
This chapel is the only one outside of Russia that has 
the six turrets, which is a mark of superior ecclesiastical 
privileges. The interior is exceedingly neat and 
clean, and as in all Greek churches, there are beauti¬ 
ful paintings of the Madonna and Saints to be seen. 
The stained-glass windows are very handsome and 
shed a “dim religious light” in the interior. 

12. The Cathedral at Cologne.-^-The magnificent 
edifice here represented is perhaps the most perfect 
existing specimen of ecclesiastical Gothic architecture. 
In size it also takes rank among the very first of the 
Cathedrals of Europe. 

The site occupied by this superb structure has been 
dedicated to religious purposes since the 9th century. 


GERMANY. 


6 33 


The foundation stone of the present building was laid 
on the -i 4th of August, 1248, and the work progressed 
very slowly and with frequent and long interruptions. 
The end of the 15th century saw the complete aban¬ 
donment of all work upon the building, and in 1795 
the French desecrated the holy structure by convert¬ 
ing it into a temporary hay magazine, and by stripping 
the roof of its leaden covering. 

Systematic work on the restoration and completion 
of the noble building may be said to have been begun 
in 1842, and the last stone was finally laid in October, 
1880, amidst great rejoicing and solemn festivities ; the 
Emperor of Germany in person performing the cere¬ 
mony, which marked the completion of a work extend¬ 
ing over the long period of 600 years. 

The history and legendary lore connected with this 
great triumph of the architect’s art are only second 
in interest to the building itself, and are very roman¬ 
tic and entertaining reading. 

Our photograph gives a good view of the southern 
side of the building. The two great western spires 
rising to a height of 515 feet from the floor of the nave 
• are here well seen. A large crane for hoisting stone 
which had stood on the unfinished south tower, (or 
the one nearest to us in the picture) for 400 years 
was removed in 1868. 

Like rqost of the great buildings of its class, Col¬ 
ogne Cathedral is cruciform in plan. It has a majes¬ 
tic nave with a double aisle on each side, and a tran¬ 
sept similarly flanked by single aisles; the interiqr 
is one of the most imposing in Europe. 

The total length of the building is 444 feet; the 
breadth 201 feet; and length of transepts 282 feet. 


6 34 


GERMANY. 


The height of the beautiful central tower seen rising 
from the roof over the transept is 357 feet. The* south 
portal seen under the great window of the tran¬ 
sept is a wonderful piece of elaborate decorative 
stone-work. The statues were the gift of the late 
Emperor William. 

Our photograph gives as perfect an idea of the build¬ 
ing in its entirety as it is possible to obtain, and the 
point of view has been purposely selected high above 
the houses. The streets of the city of Cologne are 
proverbially narrow and tortuous, so that it is imposs¬ 
ible to obtain more than mere glimpses of the great 
edifice from any portion of the town except the open 
square on the south side. A fine view of the eastern 
end of the nave and upper portions of the great spires 
may be had from the railroad bridge, crossing the 
Rhine in front of the building. 




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